Is History created by 'the people' or by individuals?

Though “the people” as a whole play in important role in history, it is really created by individuals. It is true that the people help to put ideas or plans into action, but these ideas first had to be created by an individual. Once an individual has an idea, the history will happen when the people agree and put it into action. However, if it weren’t for the individual to motivate them, the people would do nothing. The people do contribute, but history is actually made by individuals and their ideas. There are many events that prove this throughout history. In Ancient Greece, for example, the Trojan War revolved around one woman, Helen. A whole war because of one individual! Other events like the Persian Wars had to have been led by kings, rulers, and leaders. If it weren’t for these individuals telling the people what to do, the wars would simply not have been able to happen.

The Trojan War – though it is uncertain whether it actually occurred – is a great example of individuals creating history. According to Greek mythology, it all started when two gods did not invite Eris, the goddess of discord, to their wedding. Out of anger, Eris sends a golden apple to the wedding, and says that it is for the fairest. Three goddesses – Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite – cannot agree on which one of them should take the apple. In order to settle the matter, Zeus says that the prince of Troy, in Anatolia, would decide which of the goddesses is the fairest. Because Aphrodite promises the prince, Paris, the most beautiful woman alive as his wife, he chooses her. Paris decides that he wants Helen of Sparta to be his wife, and he sets of to claim her. However, Helen was already married to a man named Menelaus. In Sparta, Paris is treated with much hospitality, but when Menelaus is not there, he kidnaps Helen and takes her back to Troy to marry her. ("History of the Trojan War." Stanford University. Web. 19 Feb. 2010. http://www.stanford.edu/~plomio/history.html.)

When Helen’s husband of Sparta finds out about this, he is of course very upset. He immediately set up an army to go and get his beloved wife back. There soon encountered a problem: they did not know how to get to the city of Troy. At first, they even attacked the wrong city, but they eventually found Troy. The war with Troy lasted more than nine years, but the Greeks were still not able to get into the city. Odysseus, who was a Greek warrior, had the idea to build a huge hollow statue. Once this statue of a horse was built, the soldiers hid inside and left it outside the city gates. Unaware of what the statue really was, the Trojans brought it into the city. Once inside, the Greeks came out of the horse and burned down the city, and they were able to retrieve Helen. (("History of the Trojan War." Stanford University. Web. 19 Feb. 2010. http://www.stanford.edu/~plomio/history.html.)

Some aspects of this story are definitely mythological, but it still shows the importance of individuals. The entire war revolved around getting back Helen, just one individual. Also, the war would not even have started if Paris had not taken Helen. Without Menelaus organizing the army, they would not have gone to Troy to retrieve Helen. Every battle or event, big or small, in the war had to have been led or created by an individual. For example, without Odysseus’s idea of the Trojan horse, the Greeks would not have been able to get into the Troy, and they would not have gotten Helen back. Therefore, without Odysseus, the war would not have ended.

Another example of the importance of individuals in history is the Persian Wars with Greece. Many Greek cities were under the control the Lydians. During this time, the Persians controlled much of the world, so when they conquered the Lydians, they also conquered the subsequent Greek cities. The Persians set up strict tyrannies over the Greeks. Aristagoras, one of these tyrants, with help from Athenian soldiers, set up a rebellion against the Persians. However, Darius I, King of Persia, was able to defeat the rebels and stay in control of the Greek cities. ("Ancient Greece: The Persian Wars." Washington State University. Web. 20 Feb. 2010. http://wsu.edu/~dee/GREECE/PERSIAN.HTM.). If it had not been for Aristagoras, the Greeks would not have rebelled against the Persians, and the war probably would not have started.

The Persians’ next target was Athens. When Persian fleets tried to conquer this city, however, they were defeated. This is because Miltiades, who used to be a Persian soldier, had become a warrior for Athens. Since the Greeks had someone who knew the Persians’ strategies, they were able to defend their city and avoid being conquered. Had this individual not helped the Athenians, the outcome of the battle could have been very different. After a new king came to power in Persia, Xerxes, the Persians tried once again to conquer the Athenians. Themistocles, an Athenian leader, knew that the Persians would be coming back, so he started putting together an army before they even arrived. He was able to convince everybody to help him, and by the time the Persians attacked again, the Greek army was strong. Because the Greeks were prepared, they were able to defeat the Persians again and force them to retreat. ("Ancient Greece: The Persian Wars." Washington State University. Web. 20 Feb. 2010. http://wsu.edu/~dee/GREECE/PERSIAN.HTM.) Without Themistocles’s foreseeing, the Greeks would not have been prepared for the attack and might have lost the battle. Without that one individual, Greece could have been conquered, and all Greek history after that would be changed.

Both of these examples help to show that individuals, rather than the people as a whole, are what make up history. The Trojan War was all started because of one woman, while other individuals also helped to shape the outcome of the war. The Persian war was affected by many individuals, and without any of them, the entire outcome of the war could have been completely different. While the people help put plans into action, it is the individuals that have to come up with the ideas in the first. Therefore, history is created by individuals, not by the people as a whole.

Pictures:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brad_Pitt_horse,_Çanakkale.jpg

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